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epistemology

What does it mean to understand gameplay?

acagamic - Sun, 23/11/2008 - 12:01
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

Understanding gameplay requires a consideration of basic epistemological questions about the nature of understanding. Grounded in a tradition of philosophical hermeneutics, it is possible to approach the understanding of gameplay as a matter of generating mappings to explanatory frameworks in alternative interpretation paradigms. It is especially useful to consider gameplay from perspectives of cognitive science, semiotics, consciousness studies and aesthetics. Each of these approaches provides a different but compatible perspective on understanding play. Integrating these perspectives without losing their differences provides a comprehensive theoretical framework for play analysis.

Play and the Private

nisbojin - Wed, 12/11/2008 - 05:24
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

Over the past half a century or more, historical, anthropological and philosophical examinations of the concept of play have remained largely situated in the arena of ontological discussion. In these previous interrogations of play, the notion of play has been assumed a priori, been defined stipulatively in relation to larger frameworks of games, or discarded altogether. This work adopts Wittgenstein’s Private Language argument as a lever to unpack the usefulness in looking at play from an epistemological perspective: paying special attention to linguistic cues, ostensive relationships and associated activities around those things players call ‘play’ within specific, behavioral, situational and linguistic contexts. This paper explores how unraveling the term ‘play’ in this way can potentially afford us a new perspective on play as an epistemologically dynamic phenomenon.

Language Games/Game Languages: Examining Game Design Epistemologies Through a ‘Wittgensteinian’ Lens

nisbojin - Fri, 27/06/2008 - 00:56
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

Recent theorizing around games and notions of play has drawn from a pool of mid-20th century scholars including such notables as Johann Huizinga, Gregory Bateson, Roger Caillois and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Through his articulation of the concept of language as a type of game, Wittgenstein has been both adopted and critiqued for purposes of circumscribing what are now commonly held as the necessary constituents of games including their systemic nature and the acquiescence of their participants to an agreed-upon rule structure: a set of rules which Wittgenstein likens to the ‘grammar’ of language (Salen and Zimmerman, 2001;Suits, 1978; Juul, 2005; Wittgenstein, 1953; Finch, 2001; Brenner, 1999). Although thus far Wittgenstein has served as a pillar of 20th and 21st century game theory canon, this paper adopts Wittgenstein’s notion of language-games not for purposes of examining games, but for purposes of examining the design of games. The pursuit of this paper is to utilize Wittgenstein’s lens of the language-game to investigate what it is that informs and consequently shapes and reinforces game design epistemologies in an attempt to encourage a reflexivity about the design practices behind the games we create.

Epistemic frames for epistemic games

Jason Rutter - Thu, 22/03/2007 - 10:51
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New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:

This paper, develops the concept of epistemic frames as a mechanism through which students can use experiences in video games, computer games, and other interactive learning environments to help them deal more effectively with situations outside of the original context of learning. Building on ideas of islands of expertise [Crowley, K., & Jacobs, M. (2002). Islands of expertise and the development of family scientific literacy. In G. Leinhardt, K. Crowley, & K. Knutson (Eds.), Learning conversations in museums. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum], communities of practice [Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (199 1). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press], and ways of knowing [Broudy, H. (1977). Types of knowledge and purposes of education. In R. C. Anderson, R. J. Spiro, & W. E. Montague (Eds.), Schooling and the acquisition of knowledge (pp. 1-17). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum], epistemic frames are described as the ways of knowing, of deciding what is worth knowing, and of adding to the collective body of knowledge and understanding of a community of practice. Data from two experiments [Shaffer, D. W. (2004a). Pedagogical praxis: the professions as models for post-industrial education. Teachers College Record, 106(7); Shaffer, D. W. (2004b). When computer-supported collaboration means computer-supported competition: professional mediation as a model for collaborative learning. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 15(2); Shaffer, D. W. (2005a). Studio mathematics: The epistemology and practice of design pedagogy as a model for mathematics learning (WCER Working Paper Series No. 2005-3). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Center for Educational Research] are used to show that students can incorporate epistemic frames into their identities when engaged in extended educational role-playing games. Epistemic frames are thus proposed as a possible mechanism through which sufficiently rich experiences in computer-supported games based on real-world practices may help students deal more effectively with situations in the real-world and in school subjects.

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